Last night, Eric took me to a raw & vegan restaurant in Mississauga called Raw Aura. I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while now, so it seemed like a good time! I was slightly worried going to a raw restaurant, after my Birthday experience at Live 2 years ago, but I’ve also had a great raw food experience at Rawlicious, so I figured it was worth a shot!
From the website: ‘The goal of Aura is to provide familiar food that everyone knows and loves, in the most delicious, nutritious, and environmentally – friendly way. By using 100% raw ingredients, this means nothing is heated above 43C / 105F. These living foods are simple to digest, leaving the body light and energized since this simple form requires no extra energy from the body. Flavours are pure, fresh and intense, honouring the divine banquet provided by the earth.All of our ingredients are organic and harvested sustainably, this means you are not only doing yourself a favour, but you are creating fertile space to grow for generations to come.’
The restaurant is café style, and it is basically a cozy & intimate hole in the wall which is common of many vegan restaurants that I have been to. They prepare a lot of the food right in the dining room.
There is seating for about 16 people, so you can see how small the room is.
We started with drinks and appetizers. I had ‘The Green Juice’ which was made up of Kale, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce, parsley, lemon and ginger. My cuppa tea juice! Eric had the Old Credit Amber Ale which was their only beer and he said it was horrible (he is not an ale fan, but if you were you might enjoy it!). Their menu boasted organic beer & wine, so maybe they were running low on beer?
For appetizers, we ordered the Kale Chips which were seasoned with a delicious sour cream cashew, red onion, and chive sauce and dehydrated until crispy.
They were THE BEST kale chips I have ever tasted! Eric and I both agreed that they tasted just like Sour Cream & Onion chips. We could not detect the kale at all and we polished off the bowl fast. I have to try and recreate these!
We also ordered the Nacho Platter which was made up of crispy corn chips, guacamole, cashew sour cream, fresh tomato salsa and walnut taco meat.
They were also amazing! We polished off the entire plate. :)
I put a little bit of each topping onto each chip and it was a party in my mouth. The raw nacho chips were also fantastic…I prefer them to corn chips actually.
After our appetizers, we lingered over our drinks while our stomachs settled for about 10-15 minutes before our main entrees came out.
I ordered a ‘small’ Big Salad which was a huge mix of kale and romaine lettuce topped with avocado, cucumber, tomato, mixed seeds, red pepper, onions, sprouted chickpea hummus, and a live breadstick. I had it with the Herb Citrus dressing.
It was perfect. Creamy, tangy, flavourful, and extremely filling. I loved the ‘breadstick’ too, it was like a thicker and more flavourful Mary’s Cracker.
Eric and I both ordered the Pizza, which came highly recommended by everyone I talked to. I figured we couldn’t go wrong with pizza!
The pizza was on a delicious red pepper and sunflower seed flax crust and was topped with a cashew tomato cheese, kale, zucchini, ‘parmesan cheese’, red pepper, and more.
We loved it. It is VERY filling though, thanks to the dense crust and cashew cheese, so we wrapped up some of it to go. The only minor critique I have of this pizza is that it needed to be served warm. Supposedly it was served warm according to the menu, but we both found it cold, or at minimum room temperature. I will definitely be heating up my leftovers today!
By this point, we were stuffed, but we wanted a little something sweet to end the meal. They offer a sampler dessert plate for $12 and you get to sample 4 desserts. They know the way to a girl’s heart.
On our sampler plate: Mint Chocolate Ganache Cake, Chocolate Banana Cake, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Brownies.
All of the cakes were mousse-like in texture with a nut-based crust. I’m not a huge fan of raw cashew-based mousse cakes, but they were pretty good. My favourite was the Mint Chocolate Ganache Cake (the raw ganache was incredible) and Eric couldn’t decide which one he liked the best. Our least favourite was the Chocolate Banana Cake because we are both not big fans of straight up mousse. The brownies were very rich and just a couple small bites was enough.
All in all, it was a great meal at Raw Aura! My favourite Raw restaurant in the GTA is still Rawlicious, but only because the atmosphere at Rawlicious just can’t be beat (see here for my full review and pictures!). If Raw Aura had the same atmosphere, I would say they are both on par. I think the portion sizes at Raw Aura are larger and you get a bit more value for your dollar. We ordered a lot of food and were surprised at how low the bill was!
I was also happy not to have stomach pains like I did at Live a couple years ago. My stomach is very sensitive to nuts, but it seemed to be just the right amount in my meal last night. I tried to select dishes that were not completely nut-based so I think this helped a lot.
I left a Happy Birthday Girl. :)
Wow all that food looks amazing, especially your salad. It sounds like you had a great birthday celebration over the past few days.
I went to a raw vegan restaurant in Minneapolis and it was the best food I have ever had! There is definitely something to say about the raw movement if you can have goodies like that. Your meal looked amazing. You have fantastic skin I must say! Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! You are gorgeous!!!
Oh my goodness it sadends me so much to see that I literally worked 12 minutes away from this restaurant for four months and didn’t even think of looking up vegan/raw restaurants! … instead I brought a lunch everyday (which didn’t disappoint) but those kale chips look seriously addicting. Hope you had a great birthday!
– Samantha
http://flavorator.blogspot.com/
You look happy! And the meals look delicious!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
And all of that food looks so amazing! Especially those nachos and desserts :) I’ve never seen a raw food restaurant around me.
That strawberry cheesecake is calling my name! ;)
You look so beautiful and glowing in that last photo. Definitely a very young 28. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
what a lovely birthday dinner!~
Everything looks wonderful! Eating at a raw vegan restaurant is on my summer bucket list. I hope my experience is as good as yours! Those kale chips sound so good!!
WOW what an amazing dining experience!!!! I have had raw pizza before and it is awesome! I would love to recreate it but sadly I don’t have a dehydrator! Anyways, everything about that meal sounds perfect….especially those kale chips! What a great flavor idea!!!
Happy Birthday gorgeous Angela! I love your blog so much and have made many of the things you have on here. My favourite place to eat in Melbourne Australia where I live is called Yong Green Food. It is run by the most lovely Asian ladies who prepare raw and organic vegan food with such love and care you can taste it in the delicious food! http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1505854/restaurant/Victoria/Yong-Green-Food-Fitzroy
Sounds amazing! I’d love to try raw pizza sometime.
Happy Birthday! You look GORGEOUS in that last photo. :)
Gorgeous picture of you! All the food looks fantastic here, especially those nachos.
That looks like an amazing birthday dinner! I’ve been dying to check out a raw food restaurant, but I don’t think there’s any way I could eat at one because of my nut allergies. :P I guess I’ll just have to find some recipes on blogs like yours and try to make my own raw meal!
What a great dinner! Happy Birthday – that photo of you at the end is beautiful!
Happy Birthday Angela!!! Here is the recipe for the raw aura kale chips :) http://blisstree.com/eat/original-sour-cream-and-onion-kale-chips-recipe-from-vegan-chef-douglas-mcnish/ I use my dehydrator almost exclusively for kale chips, lol
Happy B-day (belated of course)
I was wondering if you could post some more information on live bread (what is it, have you ever tried to make it) etc. I love making bread and would like to hear more!
Oh – double question post but what are your thoughts on hot yoga for a very very beginner to yoga? Too much to start with or go for it?
Thank you!!!
I have not tried to make live bread, but that sounds interesting! I’ll be doing a post on yoga tomorrow AM…check it out :)
This post had me drooling! The nachos sound SO good. What a wonderful birthday dinner!! So glad you both enjoyed!
You’re so pretty :) lol
Hi Angela,
First off, happy birthday! I just started reading your blog and I love it so. It has really inspired me to revisit my vegetarian ways and start doing what I know my body needs. Thank you so much for that.
Secondly, I just had a green monster for lunch today. AMAZING. I can’t wait to have another one tomorrow. I already feel my skin radiating. Thanks so much for all your positivity and most importantly… doing what feels right!
Thanks again
Steph
Thats great Steph!